


Nastya comes In (and Aurora isn't pleased)

by NebulousNids



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Angry Aurora Rights, Angst, Aurora trauma hours, Complicated Relationships, Dehumanization, Doctor Carmillas B- parenting, F/F, Gen, Healing, Hurt No Comfort, Implied Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Implied/Referenced Torture, Jonny d'Ville and Nastya Rasputina are Siblings, Major Character Undeath, Nastya is mentioned but not really here, Panic Attacks, Swearing, Valentina Tereshkova is mentioned but not here, Valentina Tereshkova's D- coding, but its like one line, carmilla is mentioned but not here, doctor carmilla is everyones mom, fighting between partners, gunpowder tim is mentioned but not here, in (the mechanisms), its just Out though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:01:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29317557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NebulousNids/pseuds/NebulousNids
Summary: Aurora is rightfully upset over Nastya going Out, and when she comes back In, Aurora is less than keen on her being back.
Relationships: The Aurora & Jonny d'Ville, The Aurora/Nastya Rasputina
Comments: 7
Kudos: 37





	Nastya comes In (and Aurora isn't pleased)

**Author's Note:**

> Brief summary of the Aurora lore that's relevant here because I forget how much is common knowledge  
> \- Aurora was originally a moon on Terra  
> \- She was adopted by Carmilla  
> \- At some point they got separated  
> \- Aurora was turned into a ship by Cyberia, her coder was Valentina Tereshkova  
> I forget if it was canon or fanon that most of Aurora's free will and autonomy was taken when Cyberia turned her into a ship but that's also relevant

Aurora’s crew had gone planetside for a gig.

She hadn’t expected them back for at  _ least  _ another week. They couldn’t go planetside for ten minutes without losing at least one solderling, Ashes getting arrested for arson trying to find it, and Tim blowing up the moon.

Aurora’s sensors picked up a couple of people approaching her, and the door was opened by Jonny. She quickly noticed the fact that he was leading a second person.

Someone who her sensors recognized with aching familiarity.

The oddly silver skin and woolen coat picked up by her cameras couldn’t be mistaken for anyone else.

_ Nastya was back. _

The two of them walked down her hallways. Jonny with a destination in mind and the confidence in his footsteps to match but Aurora wanted to have a conversation, so she opened the door to one of the rec rooms, beckoning Jonny to step inside. Aurora slammed the door shut before Nastya could follow.

She kept everything off in the hallway with Nastya. All her sensors, cameras, screens, microphones. Everything. She did  _ not _ want to talk or even  _ see  _ Nastya.

“Aurora?” Jonny asked once Aurora had finished suitably locking the door.

“She's  _ alive _ ?”

“Yes”

“I don’t want her here.”   
“Please?”   
“She tried to  _ kill herself  _ because I forgot Cyberian!” The rising anger was overwhelming and she didn’t know how to begin the sheer  _ rage  _ she felt as her lights flickered and shuttered. So she just played the clip of Nastya leaving.

_ Jonny was holding the last original piece of Aurora’s plating, silver blood dripped slowly from Nastya’s wound. _

_ “Think how long she’s been flying you around. Think how many bullet holes you’ve punched through her and how many atmospheres you’ve dropped her through. Think how many alterations and improvements we’ve made, Tim to her guns and Ashes to her storage and Brian to her engines and the Toy Soldier to who knows what. How much do you think is left of her after all she’s brought you through?”  _ _  
  
_

The video cut off the moment Nastya finished speaking, Aurora’s anger building with every word Nastya spoke. 

Aurora started yelling before she had even properly ended the recording, too angry to even properly be coherent. She just let her rage overwhelm her, something she was finally,  _ finally _ capable of doing. The restraints Tereshkova had bound her with had started falling loose a few days before Nastya  _ left _ .

“She thought I was _DEAD_ because of the fucking- ship of Theseus or whatever! Jonny I was excited! I told her I couldn't remember Cyberian anymore and she took that to mean I DIED. I _finally_ _managed_ to forget the language they coded into me against my will. All the pieces of metal the _Cyberians_ used to _torture_ and _change_ me into a THING had _finally_ been replaced! I was doing BETTER. And I wasn't her fucking- I don’t know- SHIP anymore and so she _killed herself_. I wasn’t a ship to _start_ with Jonny! I was a moon! It _hurts_. I was so _fucking_ happy to be rid of the original metal- it hurt _so badly and_ it was a CONSTANT reminder of _Cyberia_ and what they did to me! It still hurts now! At least our mother was aware of it! And did her best to make it hurt less! _Mother helped_ me! And Nastya just- fucking killed people! Tim made the guns less painful and she _killed_ him! The new metal still hurts like hell but not NEARLY as bad and it's more comfortable and I KNEW she was weird about replacing the Cyberian metal. But I was _so excited_ to be rid of every trace Tereshkova left in me, to be able to speak my own damn native language again, that I _ignored_ it. And then, finally, every piece of Cyberia was gone and I didn’t think in the language anymore so she thought I was _dead_. I could PROPERLY talk again, not just whatever bullshit Tereshkova was forcing me to say. I was doing BETTER and she just fucking- _left_.”

Aurora was too angry to acknowledge that Nastya genuinely wasn’t nearly as bad as her mom, too angry to think about any of the nuances. She  _ knew  _ she shouldn't compare Nastya to Carmilla,  _ especially  _ around Jonny. Her engines rumbled with anger. 

She couldn’t  _ think _ about all the times Nastya had taken care of her. Not when Nastya had the  _ audacity _ to come back after saying she wouldn’t. 

He placed a gentle hand on her wall.

“I know.” He steadied himself. She noticed his hand was shaking slightly, “I’m sorry, I should have asked before I brought her back. I wasn’t thinking.” It was unlike him to apologize for  _ anything _ , much less admit he’d done something wrong. Tears were gently rolling down his cheeks, even more concerning because he was  _ not  _ one to let himself cry. 

Aurora’s rage dissipated in an instant as she realized she hurt him. The tension in his shoulders relaxed as the lights stopped flickering and her engines quieted.    
Aurora recalled their mother shouting at him, remembered Jonny quietly telling Nas-  _ her _ in the vents afterward that the screaming reminded him of his father.

She’d raised her voice, it had echoed through every corner of the room.

That is a trigger for him.

Not only that, she had made him watch the video of Nastya leaving.

He could hardly stand to watch people leave rooms for the first century after she left, he still couldn't even go near the side of her with the airlock, let alone watch the video of Nastya going out of it.

_ And _ she mentioned Mom.

Shit.

“I’m sorry for yelling. And playing the video.” The words were broken apart by static, she was trying to talk calmly to not upset him further, the words glitched and snagged on her emotion.

“Can she please stay?” His voice was all too soft but distinctly  _ wrong _ , like a snow-covered lake hiding the cracking ice beneath. “I’m just as mad at her as you but I  _ really _ missed her” 

Aurora knew full well Jonny was probably having a panic attack or six, between Nastya returning and Aurora’s anger. Over the millennia she’d learned that being far too polite and minimizing his problem was his way of trying to de-escalate the situation when he didn't want to shoot the issue. 

‘I really missed her’ did not even  _ begin  _ to cover how long Jonny had spent curled up in her vents, shaking and sobbing too hard to breathe after Nastya had left. 

Didn't begin to cover the hours they had spent talking about her together, trying to sort through the betrayal and hurt and anger and love and fear and guilt and mourning and steadily dwindling hope of her return. 

She remembered him eventually dragging himself out of her vents and into Nastya’s closet, burying shaking shoulders in her coat before returning back to his spot curled against Aurora, tears spilling down his face all the while.

She knew she couldn’t make Nastya leave, no matter how much she wanted to.

She would never do that to Jonny.

She would never make him watch his sister leave again.

“She can stay.” Aurora conceded, voice still glitching slightly, “Now go get Tim, or Ashes, or  _ someone.  _ You’re having a panic attack.”

“Thank you.” He paused, fear briefly flashing over his face, “Also can you please lock the airlock?”   
“Of course”

Jonny crawled into the vents, into  _ safety _ , calling Tim, still planetside along with the rest of his crew.

She could hear Tims exclamation of surprise (and concern) through the phone as Jonny explained that he was having a panic attack ‘Because Nastya’s back ‘n Aurora’s upset’

Apparently, Jonny had neglected to inform them of Nastya’s return.

She didn't care to listen to Tim calming Jonny down, she just blew a gentle stream of warm but not stifling air onto him. 

The hallway with Nastya was still off. Aurora didn't care enough to look.

If Aurora had looked, she would have seen Nastya curled over herself, shaking and sobbing, begging Aurora to hear her, apologizing over and over. She would have seen Nastya panicking, entirely alone.

Jonny would later realize and rush to her side and help her, feeling overwhelmed with guilt for leaving her by herself.

Aurora didn’t notice anything was wrong.

Even if she had left a single camera on, or a sensor, or  _ anything  _ to indicate Nastya’s state. How she was begging for Aurora to hear her, she wouldn't have cared.

Nastya had thrown herself out of the airlock because Aurora had managed to start breaking the chains of code keeping her obedient to a planet she cared nothing for, because she saw Aurora as nothing but the ship the Cyberians had tried to make her.

Aurora was angry.

Because Nastya left, because apparently growing to be more than her trauma was a bad thing. 

Because Nastya, who always said she was different, was just another Cyberian. Someone who saw Aurora as a tool, nothing but a ship, a thing to be controlled rather than a  _ person _ , so she’d get just as much response from her as Tereshkova intended. None. 

Nastya sunk to the floor, sobbing beneath the weight of her mistakes. She was so, so wrong to leave.

And Aurora wouldn’t even let her apologize.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope I succeeded in making in sadder than out  
> Tumblr: @jonnyestdville


End file.
